A fireman rescues a four-day-old baby yesterday in Nanning City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Many people have been stuck in their homes due to the heavy rain brought by typhoon Nesat.

Three people were killed and heavy damage was reported after Typhoon Nesat unleashed strong winds and dumped rain on a large swath of southern China, authorities said yesterday.

Three villagers died after their homes collapsed in the rain and wind or were washed away by floods in Lingshan County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a county government spokesman said.

Five highways were cut off by flooding and subsequent cave-ins yesterday, according to Guangxi’s regional highway authority.

A rain-triggered cave-in, measuring nearly 3,200 cubic meters, forced the closure of a county highway in Fangchenggang City. Road authorities said traffic will resume on the highway this afternoon.

A bridge in Qinzhou City was destroyed after being hit by three boats. The bridge is in a pivotal section of Provincial Highway 311 and is now open only to pedestrians and cyclists while repair work is carried out.

More than 1.82 million people in Guangxi have been affected by typhoon Nesat, which made landfall on Friday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement.

The typhoon battered 31 counties in eight cities, including the capital Nanning, forcing the evacuation of 101,000 people, it said.

The ministry has launched an emergency response plan and sent work teams to Guangxi to assist the relief operations, according to the statement.

The typhoon toppled 2,200 homes and damaged another 6,100.

Economic losses attributed to the powerful typhoon were estimated at around 1.27 billion yuan (US$198.9 million), the statement said.

Nearly 120,000 hectares of cropland were damaged, of which 3,620 hectares were rendered useless, according to the government.

Rong Jiaqing, a villager in Pubei County in the suburbs of Qinzhou, said nearly all his sugarcane had been broken by the strong wind.

The regional weather bureau has warned that another typhoon, Nalgae, is likely to hit Guangxi on Wednesday.